Buying an unregistered property from an executor?

MissWitty

Hi,

So this is all new to me, I am a first time buyer.

Myself and my boyfriend have had an offer accepted on a house which has been lived in by an older person who has obviously passed away. The house was priced reasonably cheap as it needs a lot of upgrading but it gives us the opportunity to buy a bigger plot in a nicer area so we really want this to all go through.

Its been a couple of weeks now and our solicitors couldn't cant get things moving as the sellers solicitors haven't issued the draft contract. Luckily enough I "know of" the sellers solicitor so I popped her a message and just asked what was causing the delay.

Although she couldn't tell me any legal information she told me the seller was being difficult as he is an executor and knows nothing about the property, and the property is also unregistered. She explained the legal process can be more lengthy and requires further searches and the contract is more difficult to issue with the property being unregistered. She said she is aiming to get the contract out by the end of the week and then the ball is in my solicitors court.

She isn't my solicitor so i'm grateful she took the time to tell me this but what exactly does all this mean? I don't want to keep bombarding her with questions.

Having looked at other threads about unregistered land, some people say you should get it registered before you buy on the sellers side and others say just do the first registration after as it can take months. If i did buy the property and proceeded with the registration after the purchase, what is the risks in this?

Also if the sellers solicitor is saying she will get the draft contract out by the end of the week does this mean she does have some proof of the land ownership/deeds or are they allowed to create a draft contract without this?

She also states the ball will be in my solicitors court, i'm hoping this just means with regards to getting on with the searches etc but could she mean this in regards to complications in the contract and will it be up to my solicitor to sort out the lack of deeds issue etc?

Sorry to ask so many questions...i'm a bit of a worrier and have waited & saved a long time for this opportunity to come along so I just want to put my mind at ease.

Thanks

Thrugelmir

MissWitty wrote: »

she told me the seller was being difficult as he is an executor and knows nothing about the property,

Doubt the executor was being difficult. The fact that this is a probate sale adds complications. Has probate been granted yet?

MissWitty

I am just going by the words she used, she hasn't gone into any detail about 'why' they are being difficult. She never mentioned anything about a probate being granted either, maybe I will ask.

Mojisola

MissWitty wrote: »

I am just going by the words she used, she hasn't gone into any detail about 'why' they are being difficult. She never mentioned anything about a probate being granted either, maybe I will ask.

The sale won't be able to go through until the executors have probate.

MissWitty

Yes I am aware, hopefully there is one in place. Will this make any difference to the land registry/deeds etc?

Tiglet2

The draft contract takes more time with an unregistered property as they need to send copies of all the old deeds and title documents to your solicitor along with an Epitome of Title (like a contents page). The executor for the estate may be having trouble tracking down all the documents which he needs to send to his solicitor. With a registered property the deeds can be instantly downloaded straight from Land Registry.

The Grant of Probate will be needed before they can sell the house to you, though some of the work can be done prior, but they do need to make sure that the person selling has the right to sell legally.

Even though you "know" the seller's solicitor, you shouldn't bombard her with questions. She is acting for the seller. You are not her client.

They can probably issue a draft contract without too many documents, because it is only a "draft". There will most certainly be some missing information which your solicitor will want to see before he "approves" the "draft" contract.

Margot123

First port of call is to check that the executor has been granted Probate.
You will need the name of the deceased and year of death (trawl the obituaries/ask neighbours). The information can be downloaded for £10 from the Govt website: https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

G_M

If the historic paper deeds going back through time and showing the sales from one seller to the next are all complete and comprehensive, then there i no need to register the property before you buy it.


Your solicitor will check the paperwork, and e satisfied that the seller genuinely has the right to sell to you. The prperty can then be registered when you purchase.


If some/all of the Deeds are missing, incomplete or ambiguous, your solicitor will advise you no to buy. You might end up paying £X00,000, only to find later that the did not own the property and hence nor do you.


In those circumstances, you would ask the seller to register the property first. That way, you know you are buying a property registered to the name of the seller. But of course, given that deeds are missing/incomplete, the Land Registry will take time to double check and may end up either refusing to register the property, or register it not with 'title absolute' but with 'possessory title' or 'qualified title'.

brentcloning

We were in a very similar position and completed a few months ago. In our case, probate had already been granted (as it was being sold a year after her father died), but the house was unregistered (they'd owned the house since the 70s I think).

The executor had all the deeds going back to the sale of the land that the house was eventually built on so our solicitor was happy that she legally owned the house. It did take quite a while (around six months) but other than the time and about £100 more for the first registration of the property it all went smoothly. Actually I got a call from the solicitor to say the registration was complete yesterday!

Of course I'd advise using a local solicitor!

MissWitty

Thanks all, really hoping the seller has a Grant of Probate and that they have all the deeds, I will just have to wait until I hear from my solicitor. Feeling worried now I hope it all works out ok!

MissWitty

So I found out today that there is a grant of probate and the executor also has the deeds which is good news, so guess its down to my solicitor now to sort everything